Why lie? A delicious lunch with Deion

So maybe Bryant was nervous, and maybe he wasn’t sure of the rules. Maybe, uncertain what the NCAA would do, he figured that denying everything, including lunch with Sanders, was the only way out.

But wait a few months to see if there is more.

Wait a few months to see who Bryant’s agent will be.

Bryant’s draft status isn’t changing. He will be big and fast next spring, too, assuming he doesn’t spend the rest of the year sitting around with Deion at the dinner table. Scouts think he’s a better physical talent than Michael Crabtree, which makes him a top-10 prospect.

That’s why the Aggies caught a huge break this week. As Pat Jones, the former OSU coach who is now a college football analyst, said, Bryant’s suspension eliminates “the single-most dominant talent in the league, regardless of the position.”

Bryant will appeal, and his argument will be simple: Technically, Bryant did nothing wrong but lie.

But that’s technically. Sanders is close friends with Eugene Parker, an agent who, perhaps not coincidentally, represents Crabtree. Sanders was also part of the Crabtree inner circle, and he was active in the long negotiations with the 49ers. During Crabtree’s holdout, for example, Sanders said at least two teams would be willing to give the receiver twice as much money in 2010 as what the 49ers were offering. That suggested tampering was going on.

And last week on the NFL Network, Sanders was the first to announce the negotiations were finally heating up. Then, as the network aired highlights of the 49ers-Rams game, host Rich Eisen joked that the 49ers player catching a touchdown pass was Crabtree.

“Not yet,” Sanders said. “He could be brewing. I’m dropping hints.”

It’s not a stretch to question whether he’s dropping off clients, too, to Parker. Sanders lives in Dallas, about the same distance from Lubbock as Stillwater is. Sanders has the charisma and money to get the attention of a wide-eyed college kid and lead him to an agent.

So when Bryant was asked about what he had done last May? Maybe he understood better than anyone.